Afghan refugee wins Young Australian of the Year

Updated
January 26, 2013 10:16:00

West Australian Akram Azimi has been named the Young Australian of the Year. He came to Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan in 1999, and has worked to give a voice to young Indigenous people. He spoke to AM's Ashley Hall.

ASHLEY HALL: West Australian Akram Azimi has been named the Young Australian of the Year.

He came to Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan in 1999, and has worked to give a voice to young Indigenous people.

AKRAM AZIMI: I feel that my message and the kind of work I've been doing has struck a chord not only with Indigenous Australians but with the wider community, the non-Indigenous population.

And my ideas basically are very simply. I had the chance to go out into the bush and discover this rich, beautiful culture in the Kimberley. I came back to Perth and I discovered that I knew very little about my Noongar heritage there. You know, I'd been there for about a decade and I knew so little about the land on which I was standing.

So I decided to change something about this. And us and a few university friends, including two Noongar law students, we decided to start an organisation that creates the kind of space where Indigenous and non-Indigenous students can discover each others' stories.

ASHLEY HALL: Why do you think it's so important to share those stories?

AKRAM AZIMI: Well I think it goes back to school, my school days. I remember feeling very different; I looked very different to everybody else, I had these big bushy eyebrows and this big nose and I felt my sense of being an outsider.

And I realise at one stage that, you know, I was the one who was going to have to change this and mum gave me really good advice, that your life is determined not by how others treat you but by how you treat others. And I just decided to go around and just tell my story to everyone. And that just changed everything.

The power of one humanising story is extraordinary, it can wash away a lifetime of prejudice. And most of the time, look, people are not bad they just don't know about your culture, your heritage, and all it takes is that one story to open their heart up and from there you can begin a beautiful friendship.

ASHLEY HALL: Now that story that you're talking about involves coming to Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan in 1999. So far you've generally avoided commenting on the politics around asylum seekers. That will be a bit harder now that you've been named Young Australian Of The Year, don't you think?

AKRAM AZIMI: Not necessarily. I'm still the same Akram I was before, and although my background has shaped who I am, it's not a defining feature. You know, there is so much else to me: I'm about to become a common law trained lawyer, I'm an anthropologist, I'm a human biologist, I'm a son, I'm a brother.

There is so much more to me than just this one aspect, and I'm not really one of those political people, I don't particularly like confrontation. And for me, all I can go by is my very personal experiences of Australia, which is a country of the most generous, welcoming people I've ever met. The kind of people who, when they find that your house is empty, would happily give you their furniture so you can actually have a dining table.